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CROSS COUNTRY ETHAN DOMITROVICH McDonald
Ethan Domitrovich helped put McDonald cross country back where it belongs: among the elite programs in the state.
In 2016, the Blue Devils failed to qualify for state for the first time in 18 years.
This fall, Domitrovich and his teammates made up for lost time by helping McDonald return to state and finish as the Division III state runner-up in Hebron.
“We had some pretty rough failures last year as a team and it kind of lit a fire inside of all of us to really work hard in the offseason and just not give up when things got tough,” Domitrovich said. “Looking back on [missing state] we can view it as a positive even though things didn’t go as planned. This year was a lot better.”
Domitrovich was the Blue Devils’ top finisher at state, finishing 18th with a personal-best time of 16:26.2. It was the sophomore’s first time in Hebron.
“It was so much fun, there is so much energy there and it’s just a really exciting experience that neither I nor any of my teammates will ever forget,” Domitrovich said.
For the season, Domitrovich did no worse than 10th in any of his races. He won the Walsh Jesuit Ritchie Invitational and took third in the D-III Northeast District race.
Domitrovich lives with running with his father Lou and his aunt Mary serving as the track and field coaches at McDonald.
“It’s a lot of fun being around the sport as long as I can remember,” he said. “It’s definitely helped me understand it a lot more now that I’m competing and what I need to do with training and everything.”